


#22

by foramomentonly



Series: Meet Ugly Drabbles and Fics [3]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Biphobia, Gay Bar, M/M, Malex, meet ugly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:41:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24544792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foramomentonly/pseuds/foramomentonly
Summary: Prompt: you’re on a date with this awful, awful person who keeps getting under my skin because my friend and I have been eavesdropping all night and your date says something that makes me snap … I thought it was a first date, not a three year relationship
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Series: Meet Ugly Drabbles and Fics [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1773934
Comments: 6
Kudos: 99





	#22

“--so it’s not like I’m saying that you as a bisexual man don’t have _any_ right to call yourself queer. I’m just saying that you have the _option_ of being het if you ever wanted to. Not all of us have that choice.”

“Jesus, this _pendejo_ just keeps diggin’ that grave deeper and deeper, doesn’t he?” Rosa mumbles around her neon green alien straw. 

“Worst date ever,” Alex agrees with a shake of his head, sipping his beer and chancing another discreet look over his shoulder at the man in question. Or, if he’s totally honest, at his unlucky date. 

He’s unassumingly handsome, totally Alex’s type, with riotous, golden curls and a lanky build, tan from long hours in the sun. _He must work outside_ , Alex thinks. _Wouldn’t mind getting to see that._ His odious date--first date, Alex and Rosa have spent the past half hour speculating--is also undeniably attractive, but no amount of physical perfection could excuse the condescending, arrogant, and now outright ignorant bullshit he’s been spewing since he and his date snagged the seats beside Alex and Rosa at Planet 7′s crowded bar.

“I mean, I don’t think it fair to say I’m straight if I--” the man starts, but his Date From Hell cuts him off.

“Hold on, babe. I need to take this,” he says and walks toward the front entrance of the bar with his phone already pressed to one ear, palm cupped over his other one. His date collapses back into his barstool with a deep sigh, taking a long swig of his drink and throwing his arm over his chair. As he does, the back of his hand happens to bump Alex’s bicep, and the beer he’s nursing topples over.

“Oh, shit!” the man says, swiveling his barstool to face Alex and reaching over the bar towards the bartender’s stash of cocktail napkins. “I am so sorry. Let me buy you another. Please.”

“It’s all right,” Alex says, taking the wad of napkins offered him and mopping up the small puddle in front of him. As he wipes idly at his sticky forearm, he considers the man’s wide, apologetic eyes and the way he nervously chews on his plump bottom lip. And even though it’s none of his business and he _definitely_ has ulterior motives, Alex finds he can’t _not_ speak up.

“In fact,” Alex says, smiling kindly, “let _me_ buy _you_ a drink. Seems like you need it with the nightmare first date you’re on right now.”

The man blinks his soft hazel eyes in confusion.

“What?”

“Your date,” Alex says, gesturing to the empty stool beside the man. “He’s clearly a jerk to say that stuff at all, much less to you.” 

When the man continues to stare blankly, Alex takes it as quiet relief and continues on.

“If you want me to tell him you had to go, I will,” he offers, leaning closer into the man’s space. “You could hang out in the back until he’s gone and join me and my friend for a drink?”

The man’s expression shifts all at once, eyes going dark, brow furrowing, lips forming a tight line. Alex leans back. 

“I’m not on a first date,” the man grits through clenched teeth. “That’s my fucking boyfriend. We’ve been together for three years.”

_Shit._

_“_ O-oh,” Alex stammers. “I’m so sorry. I-I’ll, uh, leave you alone.”

“Thanks,” the man replies curtly and turns back to his drink, his broad, muscled back to Alex.

Rosa whistles low and laughs.

“Looks like _you’re_ the _pendejo_ ,” she says, and Alex drops his head against his still sticky forearm on the bartop.

***

“Well, if it isn’t the guy with the _opinions_.”

Alex turns at the sound of a voice and the feel of fingers tapping at his shoulder and comes face-to-face with a flushed, messy-haired vision of a man he recognizes instantly. He’s looser, happier than the last time Alex saw him and festive for the ongoing PRIDE celebrations, bold, stacked, horizontal stripes of magenta, lavender, and blue smeared artfully across his left cheek; the man Alex tried to “save” from his own boyfriend at this same bar only a few months ago. 

“H-hi,” Alex says, offering him a hesitant smile. “Uh, how are you?”

“Fortified,” he replies with a smirk, raising his glass. “And yourself?”

“Embarrassed,” Alex admits. “I’m so, so sorry again for what I said.”

The man shrugs easily.

“It’s fine,” he says, “Ben’s in the rearview.”

Alex quirks an eyebrow at him as the man smiles lazily.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Not cuz of you, though.”

“No, of course not.”

“Don’t want you thinking you’re some kinda white knight.”

Alex laughs.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

The man shrugs and tilts his head. Alex notices glitter stuck in his curls.

“He was the first guy I was ever with. I hated the stuff he said, but I guess I thought that was the party line. I know better now.” He grins. “Plus the sex was superb.”

“To knowing better,” Alex says, holding out his glass in a salute. Mr. Suddenly Single knocks his own against Alex’s briefly.

“And to hot sex,” he drawls, and Alex laughs, hoping the dim lights of the bar and the glare of the disco ball above them hide his blush.

The air settles between them as they fall into silence, the joyful chaos of a gay bar on PRIDE whirling around them. Alex is jostled closer by a group of undergrads, and as he catches the man’s gaze he senses a shift in the energy between them, a space left open for him in the ease of the man’s grin and the slow drag of his honey eyes up and down Alex’s body. Alex extends a hand.

“I’m Alex.”

“Michael.”

Alex catches the tip of his tongue between his teeth, decides to make the bold move when Michael’s gaze drops instantly to his mouth.

“So, Michael, I think I owe you drink?”

Michael grins slow and smug.

“I think you owe me a lot more than that,” he says, lip curling suggestively. “But sure. Let’s start with a drink.”


End file.
